1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to systems and methods for designing, simulating and analyzing transportation systems and, more specifically, to a computer software implementation of an integrated system for all facets of rail system design.
2. Description of the Background
Rail systems (e.g., heavy rail, light rail, transit and people movers) have long been a convenient and relatively inexpensive method for transporting people and cargo from one predefined location to another. By interconnecting various rail lines, for example using track switches and rail yards, many diverse locations can be interconnected. In recent years, some of these systems, such as people movers at airports, have been largely automated in operation.
A unifying characteristic of these systems, however, is the use of a track or other medium on which the train cars travel. Because these tracks are expensive and often take a great deal of time to install, much effort is typically involved in determining the best location in which to lay the track and in designing the specifics of the track layout. Further, the scheduling and other operational characteristics of the trains themselves involve a similar, large-scale effort.
In order to reduce mistake-laden or less than optimal track configurations from being employed, necessitating a subsequent modification, systems have been developed to aid in the design and layout of rail system track configurations before the track is actually laid. Some of these systems utilize some type of computer operation to speed the necessary calculations.
Further, some computer systems currently exist to graphically model or “simulate” the movement of a train or other features of a rail system. Typically, such systems have minimal design and graphics options.
As such, there is a need in rail system design for systems and methods that unify the various design and simulation stages of rail layout configuration and design. Specifically, there is a need to unify the fundamental track configuration with useful design, performance testing, and training tools such as real-time 3-dimensional (“3-D”) modeling, simulation algorithms, report generation for future analysis, performance calculations (such as people throughput), alarm notification to indicate improper occurrences, and the like. The present invention, in at least one preferred embodiment, addresses these and other limitations of the prior art rail system design tools.